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Topic: "12 Square" a 12' X 12' shed project (Read 4022 times)

I will be building a 12 X 12 X 8 shed in my basement in panels which I will break down, transport, and reassemble on site at the farm. I have found this to be a pretty easy way to get things like a shed assembled in the warmth of a shop, then quickly re-erected at the field site.

I will be laying the deck tomorrow, much as the Navee lays a keel, then later welds a ship to it.

The project is meant to be easy enough to easily be duplicated (Too many "easy's) by any of you boneheads.

Note that the circles show post hole and pier locations if you wish to set it more permanently in place. The squares are concrete paver blocks placed here and there to provide support

My shed will rest directly on a packed/elevated bed of gravel. I opted for 2X6 based on the fact that the joists will be supported along the entirety of their length, but had I wanted to use piers, and considering I am going to be parking one of my medium sized tractors in there, I would have gone to 8's or 10's

The front wall will have two hinged doors opening to almost 8 feet wide and nearly as tall

Note here, and one of the reasons I ma building my own as opposed to buying a prebuilt.

The first reason is that people these days (kids) build junk. Since they have never had to do anything, why should we expect to see quality workmanship from them. I toured a local lot, and after seeing their quality built sheds, I laughed. One shed, the kid with the nailer was obviously high. I counted 13 nails into the butt of a single 2 X 4. Some hit, some missed, and the rest chopped that two by up pretty well. Just terrible workmanship.

The second reason is that most sheds had a 6'3" wall. Why??? Dunno... yuppie/hippie math I guess. but I actually want room in mine.

Don, have you priced out doing metal pole barn approach with a shed roof? Rpanel on exterior walls and roof?

I havent done a side by side but would think that the materials costs might be lower for the metal with the price of wood nowadays.

Just a thought,

Have not

But I concur with the price of wood. It surpassed outrageous last summer and is on its way to riciculous.

This structure, and the mechanical room add on to the big shed will remain stick built, but for the smallish building going up around the well, that will for sure be a wood frame/metal skin hybrid, as will any significant structure in the future.

Part of the reason I elected to build 12-Square in the traditional way was ease of construction while here at my Casa-Main. Build and sort it out here like I did for the water containment structure, then simply fit all the parts together down there and have a shed ricky-tick.

The other reason is that I enjoy working with wood and making something from the puzzle of materials if you will...

I used a 12 foot 4 X 6 to get as close to level as I could whilst grading with my tractor. It took awhile but I managed to get a pad in that had about a one inch rise from end to end.I decided to go with this as I don't really have the equipment to get it any better.

The plan will be to relevel the deck once it is assembled to find that sweet spot, and hopefully after a few freeze/thaw cycles which will serve to pack that stuff some more.Using the southern beam as a reference, I worked to level the other three legs, one at a time. I definitely had to do a little digging to get there. I'd say by the end I had it within 1/2" of level from end to end

Then in went the joists, one by one. Even though I sketched it out with joists on 16" centers, I changed the design to have them sitting on 24" centers. Reason is, originally, I was going to perch the building on six concrete piers, requiring more stiffness. That would have used 2 X 8's and more of them. But with literally every inch of the 2X6 "bedded" if you will in an elevated pad of this dense grade, well, there is zero span-wise flexing going on. And after jumping on the 3/4" panels screwed to these joists, I am not seeing any movement to worry about.

The pics don't show it, but I actually nearly filled the first few chambers with the gravel as well. I do not intend for the OSB to rest directly on gravel, but rather to provide for an ample amount of material to backfill under any voids after I possibly lift the decs a bit to do my final leveling.

While pouring gravel into the chambers using the tractor, I laid the bucket down to back drag the stuff level.

That was a mistake

It cost me an hour to dig out two smashed joists, and set new ones back in. Forgetting to check for square, I later discovered I had shifted the base just enough to get a slight misalignment of the decking.

Know what??

I don't care. Its a shed that Don built. Why should me or anyone else expect it to be either square or plumb?

And that got me and the deck done. I did get the other panel and a half screwed down, but I was too cold and all over caring about anything except to get warmed up and in a comfy bed...Which I did after 30 min of soaking in an epsom salt bath.

I angle cut the cross bracing so as to be a tight fit, then screwed it together with 3" screws in the framing and 2" screws attaching the sheet of smart panel to the frame. It pulled up and became very rigid.

I'll hang the doors with a 3/8" gap all around using heavy duty gate hinges

The beauty of what you're looking at is with the quick removal of just a few screws that whole thing breaks down into just five panels so far. When complete, I'll have 13 wall panels and doors, two end gables, seven additional rafter trusses, some roof metal, and a stack of loose lumber to finish the roof

Next I stiffened up the doors a bunch since they will see a lot of use over the years. I laid down wood glue first, then fastened either OSB or left over 2 X 12 angles with a few screws to hold it together until the glue sets up. As a result those doors got pretty stiff and are very straight